Mrs. Tech

Wednesday, February 14, 2018

I wanted to share with you some of my favorite online Presidents Day activities that my students enjoy each year! These are all kid-friendly websites and most of them are free of any ads. Some are educational and others are just fun for early finishers!

Monday, February 12, 2018

ChatterPix is an app that I use with my students for character talk. I love to hear the characteristics of main characters of a book from a student perspective.

ChatterPix allows students to take a picture of a character (or take a picture of a drawing) and give the character a voice. They simply draw a line where their mouth is, and then records a 30 second video as the character. I typically have my students summarize the characteristics of a character in 30 seconds.

Another way I have used ChatterPix is to have students take a picture of themselves, and then use ChatterPix to explain their standing on a topic we are discussing in class.

This is just a fun way for the to share an opinion or a summary of a character in a way that you can reflect on later.

Thursday, February 8, 2018

Telestory is SUCH a fun app to use in the classroom for weather reports or classroom updates. We do morning announcements at our school, but only in High School. My Middle School kids really wanted to try out announcements so we used this app originally to start with them.

Basically, you can make cue cards, choose disguises, and record yourself doing weather, sports, news anchor or top stories. It is a great way to have students begin the recording and video process. It is also great for video awareness and public speaking. Using an app like this helps reinforce these skills while also allowing the students to create & have fun!

Wednesday, February 7, 2018

It's that time of year again! I love school, but what a celebration 100 days is. That means we're over halfway through and so I wanted to share with you some of my favorite online 100th Day of School activities that my students enjoy each year! These are all kid-friendly websites and most of them are free of any ads. Some are educational and others are just fun for early finishers or 100th Day Parties!

Monday, February 5, 2018

It's that time of year again! I wanted to share with you some of my favorite online Valentines Day activities that my students enjoy each year! These are all kid-friendly websites and most of them are free of any ads. Some are educational and others are just fun for early finishers or Valentines Day parties!

Monday, January 29, 2018

Black History Month (February) is worth recognizing in any classroom because
of the significance that many African American men and women have had on our
country over the years. It is also important for our students to discuss how the course of history has changed because these strong men and women stood up for what they believed in and made a difference in the world around them.

There are many websites that talk about Black History month
that would be great to use in your classroom with your students. Some of these
websites are:

Monday, January 22, 2018

Doodle Buddy is basically just a doodling app. I first came across is when Kami from teachingwithAppitude shared about her students drawing Santa faces on themselves with the app! I loved the idea and had immediately added it to my lesson plans.

Exploring Doodle Buddy a little more, I found even more features to love. First of all, you can add cute little emojis to your drawings (and whose kids don't LOVE emojis). Also, I liked that you can add backgrounds to Doodle Buddy. Some of the templates include hangman, tic-tac-toe, dots and a few mazes. My students love to use these to complete these games virtually. There are also shapes & images that you can add to the drawing as needed. Obviously, there are a million colors and lots of different sizes and styles of pens that you can use for the actual doodling part.

My one complaint about Doodle Buddy is that if you shake it, it clears the whole screen. So encourage your students to draw with the iPad flat on the table, and not to move it until they have already screen shot or saved it.